We had the doom and the gloom but now...

As a life supporter of the Rovers, I moved away several years ago to pastures new in sunny Cambridgeshire.

I did however make the point of driving the long arduous journey up the A1 and M62 everytime we had a home game to watch miserable performances that left me gobsmacked.

I should at this point state I was brought up with Rovers, was at school with James Beattie, met the likes of Colin Hendry, Mark Atkins and Stuart Ripley which meant I spent a lot of my time idolising the guvnor of Blackburn Mr Jack Walker.

Prior to moving 'down south' I spent several years working at Ewood and understand the way our glorious club was and still is run on a day to day basis.

Reading through many blogs I must say it suprises me how so many so called die hard fans feel its right to criticise the current owners and management staff of BRFC Plc.

On this basis lets look at the owners, fair enough we have been linked with high profile players such as Ronaldinho and Beckham that the world and media have laughed about! The real question however should be why would we want these, overpaid and no future, and most would agree at the end of their career.

Is it just me or is this the exact opposite of the Venky's way of working?

The Venkys Group are business people, good ones at that. With rising share prices, a growing global business and now the proud owners of one of the founder clubs of the football league, I for one am sure they have a serious business plan that is well structured and is fully capable of being delivered.

The recent January signings are now showing their worth, holding the likes of Formica back for a few months will prove its worth in gold. Which leads me on to... The Manager: Steve Kean.

Since his time in charge, he has seen the loss of The Messiah Mr Williams, along with (in my opinion) the over-rated Mr Allardyce.

Single handed Steve Kean has dragged us kicking and screaming through last season, for a manager with his experience, to me means a lot. The way in which we now approach games, the attacking football we play, and the team spirit we seem to have shows me that with a few more prize signings, the Rovers will soon once again be the team we were only a few years ago.

Fair enough we have lost Jones, a youngster who played only a handful of Premier League games, for £16.5M. Good business by any standards.

In the era of Hughes and Allardyce, its worth noting we were known as a team whereby aggression ruled the game play, at least under Kean we are now showing we can move the ball around and entertain the eye. With Petrovic due to sign imminently, and no doubt a few more shock signings waiting in the wings.

I think its about time the real fans get behind the team, and management, and hold out for what is going to be an interesting year for the Barmy Army.

From the sunny pastures of Cambridgeshire, and from a die hard Rover, peace out, Rovers till I die!!!

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Your Comments (oldest first)

Excellent post Sparky. I think that the vast majority of Rovers fans are waiting and watching with open minds. There is a relatively vociferous minority who are already condemning the owners and the manager. This is not only futile, as they can change nothing, but also counter-productive, fomenting as it does discontent amongs the easily-led. Like you I am a Rovers fan of many years and, perhaps, we are more hardened to the ups-and-downs that come with our loyalty to the Club. The current uncertaintly is as nothing when compared with some of the pitfalls which have befallen the Club in times past. Personally, I have become a staunch admirer of Steve Kean who has single-handedly shouldered the burden of dealing with the transition from mid-table mediocrity to a team which will offer entertainment and the chance of developing greater quality with a younger squad. Last season was a nightmare but the saving grace was the obvious team-spirit which Kean has developed at the Club. I look forward to seeing what he can do under more favourable circumstances with a pre-season under his management and a squad which will more closely reflect his own choice of players.

Like the optimism...in particular the bit about Steve Kean!! Kean has had a very rough deal..started by the media after Allardyce (media lovechild) was sacked!! Whichever way you look at the man is ultra positive and has managed to get us playing half decent football..but it is the job of holding everything together which impresses me most! He was left completely alone to keep the playing staff together, implimenting his strategy and travelling innordinate amounts of airmiles to "keep up communications" between venkys, the players and the fans...kean did this AND kept us in the league!!
Mcleish took Birmingham down on four times the budget we had, holloways "beautiful game" fizzled out to weekly drubbings and the so called "mighty west ham" failed miserably!!
Throughout this kean remained confident and determined in much more difficult circs than the afore mentioned...this was never more demonstrated than the amazing performance of Rovers in the final game against Wolves!!..on that day, the players believed in kean and his philosophy..kean needs a big break from us as Rovers fans!
I'm not saying that if he doesn't perform then he cannot be sacked but I am saying that he showed amazing resolve in the face of adversity last season and for this reason he deserves his chance and Venkys should recognise this too!

Did any of you watch us against Everton, Newcastle, Blackpool, Birmingham hardly teams challenging for the top spot and we were shocking against all of them, no wonder we had our worst run in thirty years. We stayed up because there was plenty of other dross in the league.
Blackpool had the ball in our net 4 times before we had a shot at goal....Kean thought we played well.
Everton beat us 3-0 we didn't make their keeper make a save....Kean thought we played well.
Newcastle battered us at home and must wonder how we robbed a point.
Birmingham were on a dreadful run and we scraped a 1-1 draw at home.
We avoided relegation on the last day of the season, we scored way too few.
Some may say The Walker Trust didn't invest greatly in the playing staff and they would be right, but also they didn't blow smoke up everybody's ass; that at best creates a totally unrealistic expectations amongst many or at worst leaves us looking like a delusional organisation that any decent/sane player would avoid like the plague. I know we have never been the darlings of the press, but we don't need to give these guys the ammunition to fire at us.

Nice read fella, agree with every word. Steve Kean was thown in at the deep wnd, yes there were times he looked out of his depth when we just couldn't get a win but the PL has never been so tight still he kept us up, gave Hoilett his chance, made very good signings of JJ, Rochina and Formica, played some terrific football at times in a transitional period. We should be looking forward to next season not writing us off already.

blue_n_white99... I can understand some frustration as it was a horrible run where we were looking over our shoulders with about 10 other teams but in the blackpool game they scored from a very soft penalty and a piece of brilliance from Adam's free kick... And we had the team spirit to battle back to 2-2 which suggests Kean had the players playing for him. The Everton game wasn't good but we lost 2-0, not 3-0... Another penalty in that one, and MGP missed an absolute sitter. The Newcastle game we were lucky to get a draw, the Birmingham game was a dire game, both teams were too cautious when playing for PL safety. I still remember the 7-1 demolishing by the scum when Big Sam more or less said ... Oh well it's Man Utd it's to be expected... Not good enough Sam. Under Kean when everybody was on his back we drew 1-1 with the scum with yet again another soft penalty against us and most would agree we shoulda won that game, Olsson was unlucky not to put us 2-0 up. All i'm saying is give Kean a chance to make his own team. If it doesn't work so be it i'm sure Venky's will let him go. There will be plenty of time to say I told you so but for now we should be getting behind our team.

Itsallrover - I'll give you Hoillett, JJ was a fabulous signing but we missed a trick not negotiating a follow up, Formica and Rochina a couple of nice touches, nothing more as yet. The 1-1 against Utd was great for 75 minutes, the next 15 were the most embarrasing pile of crap I have ever seen.
My biggest issue with SK is he talks BS and expects the fans who have just watch some dire performance believe it. Some will say he is just being positive. He can list the positives without lying and treating the fans like gullible morons.

Perfect post.....I hate the Rovers fans who are always doom and gloom Steve Kean did fantastic to keep us up yeah we went on a horrific run but we drew with Arsenal at the Emirates, drew with United and some Rovers fans need to realise that he has actually done alright and hopefully this season with the PLAYERS HE WANTS! he can build a very good team who will entertain and get goals.....Hoilett and Olsson have been amazing since Kean became manager and if it wasn't for Kean Hoilett wouldn't be the player he is today. so I believe we should give him a chance instead of moaning all the time about him, in his interviews he shows soo much enthusiasm because he loves the job...so fingers crossed with the right signings we can have a good season!

An interesting post here Sparkyp - and you have made some good points. I think the thing that get me at the moment is that us fans are all divided, more so than usual. However the one thing we all want is Rovers to do well. Trouble is we are split into two camps the kean fans and sack-kean fans - or the venky's crowd and the anti-venky's crowd. I'm mistified as to the running of our club at the moment, which until recently we were a well run club. However, now, it seems everyday there is something happening - good or bad which has and is tarnishing our reputation. I just want more stability from the owners, better communication, and realistic aims. As for Kean, he's a nice bloke, but I'm not sure if he is a good manager. I hope that I'm wrong and that he fires us up the table into Europe, but I can't see it happening.

Well Freidelno.1 i think he will do well. he is just so positive about everything, that it will rub of on the team, either way his got his time to shine, let us get behind the team and see what he can do and if we are still in trouble by christmas then we can start to worry. I just cant wait for the season to start at this stage is there anybody else as excited as me, come on the rovers.

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